


static

by stilljunhui (acyria)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Ambiguous/Open Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 09:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18192644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acyria/pseuds/stilljunhui
Summary: It’s calming, in a sense. The road looks like it could go on forever with no end in sight. Literally. How long has he been driving? For some reason, his gas level stopped going down about two hours ago; with the tank perpetually half full and the sun nearly setting, he’s still driving. The sun’s been in that position for a while now, too, never really sinking. There’s someone talking to him through the car radio. He’s sure of that, but it’s been too distant, too easy to ignore. Maybe it’s time he pulled over.





	static

**Author's Note:**

> For _you_ , this 2019. I miss you. Always. 
> 
> To anybody else reading this, if you’re driving one day and suddenly hear the radio stop playing music, don’t change the channel. Stop. Listen. It’s never too late.
> 
> (Not beta-read. Present tense writing isn’t my forte, so if anybody would be willing to help fix any mistakes, do let me know! I’ll be forever grateful! ♡)

It starts with a packed bag. 

 

Hong Jisoo wonders, briefly, if he packed too little or packed too much. He wonders if he should have packed anything at all. One day, he woke up with a burning desire to just go somewhere. He’s never been the type to leave home for anything, much less for something so unsure, but lately, he’s been feeling lost. There’s no other way to put it—no _nice_ way to put it, really—except for those few choice words. Maybe not completely. Not all of him, anyway. Just a small, missing part.

 

As if he has something he needs to find. Perhaps he does.

 

So maybe, it doesn’t start with the packed bag. It starts a few days before his departure.

 

The city has always been weird, that much was sure. There have always been strange happenings; lights overhead in the sky, distant sounds that aren’t heard by everybody, sightings of people who don’t quite look like the others around the area. For Jisoo, he’s had none of these experiences himself. He’s what was considered _Normal_. In a city as crazy as the one he lives in, being Normal is just as bad as being weird—if not, worse. 

 

He’s been Normal for far too long. At 24, almost everybody else he knew had at least one story to tell. Something strange, something amazing, something altogether too unbelievable to comprehend. All the other boys his age already had their _something_ , their tale to tell, their way out of the mundane normalcy of life. Jisoo never wanted anything to do with such experiences. He was perfectly fine with none of these strange occurrences. Keyword being _was_.

 

One night, Hansol disappears without a word and nobody bats an eye.

 

He’s considered lucky. 

 

Whispers filled the city about how he was one of those chosen to join the others who left before him, yet another addition to the growing list. An adventure, a blessing, a gift from above. Jisoo found it stupid; Hansol was his best friend—still is his best friend, nothing will change that—and even if everybody saw it as a good thing, Jisoo wasn’t going to just accept that he disappeared from their small city despite how nobody else wanted to look for him. Hansol wasn’t the type to run away, either, so it just didn’t make any sense. Nothing ever did make sense.

 

He had originally just wanted to leave in an attempt to look for Hansol, but soon realized that that wasn’t all. There was a different feeling blooming inside of him, one that made Hansol’s disappearance harder to ignore. The younger boy had been one of the Normal ones as well until all this happened. He had been the closest thing Jisoo had to a brother, to someone just like himself. Hansol had always been a bit out of this world, though. Perhaps Jisoo should have known from the beginning that if aliens were real, they’d definitely go for the younger boy first.

 

So he’s back to the packed bag, finally deciding that it’s just the right size. 

 

Jisoo doesn’t know exactly where he wants to go, or where the road will take him, so he hopes a few choice pieces of clothing will be enough. 

 

Unlike Hansol, Jisoo decides it was best to leave something for his parents to find when they do wake up, like a note with a smiley face on it. He wants to write something else—maybe some words of comfort, or an assurance that he’ll return, but he doesn’t know that. He leaves the note on the fridge door, held up with a tiny guitar magnet. He’s in his car before his parents wake up, just a bit before dawn.

 

Nobody else in the city is awake at that hour save for the local news station, the only lit building on the street when Jisoo began his drive through the city. Jisoo never reads the newspaper, mainly because the first time he tried to do so, he was met only with mindless scribbles and mismatched words. It made absolutely no sense then and it continued to make no sense each day he picked it up from the front porch to hand to his father, who read it religiously. He decides not to try again that morning as he drives past. 

 

The rest of the city becomes a blur to him as the sun begins to rise. 

 

Driving in the city is not exactly relaxing, but that morning Jisoo could definitely argue that it is.There’s not another car in sight. His windows are rolled down to allow the cool breeze from the outside to seep in, ruffling his dark hair. Jisoo is one of the few city residents with dark, black hair, which always earned him strange looks from other people. Once when he was younger, someone in school with bright purple hair accused him of dyeing his hair black to look cool. He didn’t even know what dyeing one’s hair meant back then.

 

He drives for what seems like hours within the city, and a quick glance at the clock and the sky confirms this. It’s nearing noon when he stops at a diner for lunch and something to take with him on the road. He knows he’s close to leaving the city boundaries soon, according to the street signs on the road. Exits here and there. Jisoo calculates the drive to the next city, which according to his map, should mean he makes it there in time to look for dinner. 

 

Jisoo has never heard of what it’s like Outside their city. 

 

It’s considered somewhat of a taboo subject for the residents to talk about the Outside. It’s not like they were trapped or anything, but everybody just had the notion that you weren’t supposed to leave unless called. That was what happened with Hansol. That was what happened with his grandmother. Just like his best friend, Jisoo’s grandmother had been living in the house right next door, before she was gone. Called, everybody said. Jisoo was too young to understand, then.

 

The girl working behind the cash register looks at him weirdly when Jisoo orders another meal for take-out. He knows her, he thinks. Someone from school, one of the group of girls with bright pink hair who insists on walking together every single time. Her eyes narrow when Jisoo smiles, and he promptly gives up trying to keep a good facade. He takes the brown bag and leaves with a small word of thanks. She continues to glare. 

 

Jisoo’s drive continues without incident as he passes the last sign that said he was leaving the city. He turns on the radio as he did so, something to fill in the silence that came with the open roads.

 

Music always calmed him down. 

 

It’s probably the only thing in his otherwise crazy world that feels right, feels good, feels normal in a way he relates to. There’s no odd languages or weird noises, just a worldwide feeling of calm or of whatever the lyrics and beats want you to feel. If anything, it’s the only way he feels like he fit in sometimes, even when he doesn’t find himself wanting to.

 

The radio continues to play soft tunes as he drove on, following the road to wherever it takes him. His planned route includes the next city, but that was hardly his destination. No, Jisoo figures he could drive until he has driven in a circle back to his hometown if that were possible. His only plan is to drive—stop for food and gas, maybe to rest, but that was it. He soon enters into what looked like a highway. 

 

He’s the only car on the road.

 

It’s then that the music stops, filling the car with nothing but static. 

 

Jisoo is tempted to close the radio because of it, but figures it was still the only source of sound he has. Even the car driving across rubble is too silent. He sees shadows in the distance, a good sign that he was still driving towards somewhere, but there are no birds in the sky. No distant chirping. The sun begins to set. He wonders if maybe, this was what Hansol did after all. Sure, he didn’t have a car he could drive, but what if he wasn’t _called_. What if he just left?

 

That’s certainly what he feels.

 

Jisoo just wants to get away. Far far away from the city that regarded him with uncertainty and just a hint of distrust. Far far away from where he could never fit in, no matter how hard he tries. Far far away from a place without his best friend. So he continues to drive, static his only company. 

 

It’s calming, in a sense. The road looks like it could go on forever with no end in sight. Literally. How long has he been driving? For some reason, his gas level stopped going down about two hours ago; with the tank perpetually half full and the sun nearly setting, he’s still driving. The sun’s been in that position for a while now, too, never really sinking. There’s someone talking to him through the car radio. He’s sure of that, but it’s been too distant, too easy to ignore. Maybe it’s time he pulled over.

 

He stops the car and takes in the colours of his surroundings. The sky is lit pink and orange thanks to the never-ending setting sun. The trees and mountains in the distance look like they were lined with a vibrant red as if the sun had caused a fire to happen. He no longer questioned what was happening. Maybe he has been secretly hoping for it his entire life; for his _something_. Surely all this had to be just that, right? From the moment he left the city by himself—his own free will—to the present. 

 

The black haired boy turns his attention back to his radio. 

 

Tentatively, he turns the volume up higher.

 

“Hello?” Jisoo asks, voice surprising even himself as it fills the car. He’s been going so long in silence, so long without using his voice, that for a moment it sounds weird. He tries again when he hears the static crackle a little bit. “Hello? Am I right that I heard someone, or am I going mad from all this driving?”

 

Another loud crackle, but this time it sounds more like a chuckle.

 

“You’re right.”

 

He can’t help but feel a little disappointed. The voice that comes on isn’t Hansol’s like he has been secretly hoping for. It’s not even his grandmother, which would have been a pleasant surprise. It’s a boy’s voice, that’s for sure, light and playful. Jisoo’s not sure how he can tell that the owner of the voice was mischievous, but he just could. He figures that wasn’t the weirdest part of what was happening, after all.

 

“Who are you?” He asks. 

 

He gets no response, so he tries a different question.

 

“What’s happening?” Jisoo asks again. There’s a soft hum on the other side. “Where am I?”

 

The boy laughs, “your questions are so funny, Jisoo. It’s as if you don’t know what you’ve done.”

 

“What I’ve done?”

 

“You left on your own, didn’t you? Aren’t you looking for us?”

 

“I’m not—“ Jisoo starts to say. He’s not looking for them. He didn’t even know who _they_ were, whoever the boy was referring to. Still, he doesn't think it's a smart idea to confess that just yet. Maybe this is where he can finally get some answers. He tries to think of something new to ask, but nothing enters his head. It's been a long day driving, after all.

 

The radio crackles again before the voice came back on.

 

"It's about time you did something," the boy says approvingly. "I've been wondering how long it would take you. Some of us were even making bets. Thankfully, I’ve always had more faith in you than the rest. You're on the right track."

 

Again, Jisoo wishes he actually understood what was happening. Everything feels like how it was back in the city; he feels like the same, dark-haired boy, desperately trying to make sense of things that generally just doesn't make sense at all. Except this time, there was a voice over the radio that makes him feel like he _should_ be understanding what was happening. He still doesn't, for the record.

 

Everything feels so complicated.

 

"It's not too far from here," the boy continues after a few moments of silence. "Just keep going. I'll keep you company."

 

There's little Jisoo can do except follow instructions. He starts the car engine once more and listens to it sputter back to life. He’s tempted to change the radio channel, but some part of him is sure that won’t do anything to change the situation he’s in. Plus, he doesn’t want to lose the voice on the other end. There’s something strangely calming about knowing there’s someone around, even if it is just a disembodied voice.

 

He keeps driving.

 

“Jisoo,” the voice says after a few minutes. “Make sure you don’t miss that left turn.”

 

The black-haired boy blinks, briefly wondering what left turn, since the highway is a straight route through and through. He blinks again and that’s when the road shimmers with a soft, yellow light before there’s a fork in the road. It definitely wasn’t there before, but at some point, Jisoo has completely surrendered the normalcy of things. He realizes he’s not even sure what the word normal is supposed to mean anymore.

 

Well, he knows he’s Normal.

 

But what does that really mean?

 

Sometimes, back in the city, Jisoo found himself imagining a world where he wasn’t Normal. He would imagine a world where everybody had dark hair, just like him. A world where the newspaper clippings were in a language he could read and understand, where people didn’t glare at him in the hallway, and where his grandmother was around to tell him stories. She would always tell him not to mind the staring. She always said he was special.

 

Driving down an endless road with a voice over the radio for company, Jisoo finally feels special.

 

“I’d like it if you talked to me,” the boy complains after a while. 

 

“I don’t know what to say,” Jisoo replies honestly. “I don’t even know your name.”

 

“I’m known as Yoon Jeonghan.”

 

Nothing about the name is familiar, so Jisoo continues to have nothing to say. He tries to figure out if maybe he’s heard it somewhere before—in school, on the streets, anywhere—but he comes up with nothing. He has no idea how Jeonghan seems to know everything about him, as if watching his every move, but very few things surprise the dark haired boy. He comes from a town where nothing made sense, after all. 

 

“Where am I headed?” He tries to ask again.

 

Somewhere along the way, the skies began to change colour. It’s now a deep purple with hints of green on the horizon. The sun continues to stay in place, looking more like a bright white now, as if it somehow transformed into the moon along the way. Jisoo thinks that maybe, just maybe, it did manage to do just that. He’s pretty sure the sky isn’t supposed to be green, anyway. If he’s still sure of anything at all. He’s talking to a voice over the radio. He’s still coming to terms with that.

 

“Well,” Jeonghan begins. “It depends where you want to go.”

 

“Far away,” the dark-haired boy finds himself saying. 

 

“We’ve established this, Jisoo. You’re headed the right way.”

 

“Yeah, but how do I know?” Jisoo asks, turning away from the road and towards the radio, as if he’s looking right at Jeonghan and not at the interior of his car. He knows it’s not possible, but something in his head flashes with an image of a boy with platinum blonde hair, a chiseled face, and a cheshire-like grin. It’s as if he’s had the image in his head all this time, buried deep and forgotten. His mind immediately labels the face as Yoon Jeonghan. 

 

The radio crackles and static fills the air again.

 

He gets no answer. 

 

This time, he’s sure there’s nowhere to go but straight. There are still shadows in the distance, exactly the same as they were from earlier that day, and Jisoo’s still driving towards it. The shadows don’t look like they’ve gotten any closer, but he drives on anyway. His gas tank is still half full. He wishes his radio was actually working this time around. He’s not sure how long he’s been driving, honestly, but it’s been long enough that he starts to feel sleep overcome him.

 

Careful not to fall asleep in the middle of the road, despite his circumstances, Jisoo pulls over to the field nearby. It’s grass as far as his eyes can see, an empty field of absolutely nothing, and the sight calms him down a little. It feels better to know there’s nothing around him than having something he didn’t know surround him. The sky above is still purple, but there are stars now, which gave the impression of night. 

 

He thinks of Hansol.

 

When the two were younger, it felt like it was only natural that they played together. Jisoo grew up with the younger boy constantly tailing after him, speaking about the stars in the sky and the various planets that were yet to be discovered. Hansol wanted to be a scientist ever since he learned how to read. The older boy, on the other hand, always felt like there was nothing out there in the skies to discover.

 

At least, Jisoo would have preferred it to be that way. It made him feel better, growing up, to think that there was nothing extraordinary about the world beyond them. There were enough weird things happening in his own city, he just didn’t need to worry about what was beyond his little sphere of understanding. He figured that if aliens existed, then maybe they lived right next door to him, in the form of the old man who always said he was a naughty child.

 

That left no room for his imagination to wander elsewhere.

 

Right before Jisoo closes his eyes, he sees a figure in the distance.

 

On the field, Yoon Jeonghan is walking right towards his car, blonde hair getting blown by the wind. The other boy has a smile on his face as he approaches the car, while Jisoo can’t do anything but stare. Even with the radio turned off, there’s still a clear static in the air. A part of him doesn’t want to open the car door, but Jeonghan’s already knocking on the window, and he finds himself rolling it down despite himself. 

 

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Jeonghan says cheerfully.

 

The dark-haired boy blinks, “am I dreaming?” 

 

“Yes and no,” the other boy says with a wide grin. “Mind opening the passenger door?”

 

Jisoo does, and Jeonghan gets in the car without another word. 

 

“It’s so quiet,” the blonde says after a while, messing with the radio dials until he’s satisfied with the position. Immediately, music begins to fill the car again, even though everything’s still turned off. Jisoo doesn’t question this; he’s just glad to be hearing something other than silence again, even if it came in the form of a stranger entering his car. Is Jeonghan really a stranger, though? He’s not sure as he listens to the boy speak. 

 

“Your destination is nearby from here,” Jeonghan begins as he leans the car seat backwards. He shifts around, getting comfortable. “The others should greet you when you get there.”

 

“And where would you be?” Jisoo finds himself asking.

 

He gets a hearty laugh in return.

 

“Wherever you want me to be.”

 

When Jisoo opens his eyes, unsure when he even closed them to begin with, there’s nobody in the car next to him. His engine is still turned off, but the radio continues to play the same soft tunes he remembers starting the drive with, the radio dials set the way Jeonghan did. The sky overhead is orange and pink, with the sun a brilliant ball of red, like it’s supposed to be. It’s still in the center of everything, setting but not really, a constant presence. 

 

He feels well-rested enough to continue his drive, firing up the engine once more.

 

His thoughts wander from one thing to another. 

 

Hong Jisoo doesn’t feel called. On the contrary, it’s a lot more like he volunteered, without outright saying anything. He drives as if he has a purpose now, but he knows there’s still none. The destination in his head is still unsure, a haze in the distance that he might never even reach. Still, he wants to pretend that things are going the way it’s supposed to go. He expects to find Hansol in the place he’s going.

 

For some reason, he can easily picture how surprised Hansol would be, but delighted at the same time. 

 

His gas tank begins to deplete again. It falls below the half measure as Jisoo continues to drive, humming along to the song on the radio. It’s the same song playing for the sixth time. Over and over and over again. It’s still better than nothing, although he finds himself missing the static, if only because it means hearing something from Jeonghan again. Something that would make him feel like he didn’t just dream up the last few hours of his drive.

 

The sun finally begins to set.

 

A few moments later, the buildings begins to look clearer.

 

It’s night time when Jisoo drives pass a sign that welcomes him into the city, but something feels off. In the dim moonlight, he can only sort of tell what his surroundings are. There are no people in sight despite the multitude of buildings—nobody on the streets, nobody in the 24-hour diner that’s open as he drives slower on purpose to peer inside, nobody greeting him like he was told. There’s an eerie chill in the air.

 

He knows that building, with the dilapidated lights, the only one lit up. The local news station continues to run despite the late hour. The news stop for no one, his father always said, every morning as he read the newspaper. There’s always something happening in some part of the world. People had to be aware of these things. It takes Jisoo far too long to realize he’s back in the city he drove so far away from. The streets grow increasingly familiar.

 

He stops right next to the news building and gets down.

 

The door opens before he could even touch the doorknob, and out comes a short boy with pink hair, looking frustrated.

 

“Finally,” the boy says, pointing at his wristwatch. “You were supposed to arrive hours ago, Hong Jisoo.”

 

“I’m sorry,” Jisoo finds himself saying, even if what he really wanted to do was ask for the boy’s name and figure out what’s going on. He gets tugged inside the building and finds it teeming with people left and right. There are typewriters on every table and someone working on each one, typing away furiously like their life depended on it. For a brief moment, the dark-haired boy considers that possibility to be true, just as he’s brought into another room.

 

The shorter boy speaks loudly, “he’s here!”

 

There are a total of five people in the room. Yoon Jeonghan is sitting at the very center.

 

“Jisoo!” The blonde says, getting up from his seat. “I was worried you got lost.”

 

“What’s happening?”

 

“What do you mean, silly?” Jeonghan chuckles, taking the other’s hand in his, fingers clasped tightly. He draws Jisoo’s attention away from the other people in the room, who were all watching the scene before them unfold with curious eyes. The blonde boy smiles, and something in Jisoo’s stomach twists at the sight, like butterflies emerging in his stomach. “You’re where you wanted to go. Remember? Far away is right here. You are staying, right?”

 

He still thinks of Hansol. His grandmother. Briefly, his parents back home, wherever home is located. The dark-haired boy is no longer sure of anything as he follows Jeonghan deeper into the room, where they enter another door and soon emerge in a room that looks a lot like his own. His bed is in the same place, with his misplaced socks still resting on the pillow where he left them before he began his drive. Everything’s an exact replica. 

 

“You are staying, right?” Jeonghan asks again, right before their lips meet.

 

It’s a lot like electricity. As he closes his eyes, Jisoo swears he could hear the static that filled the air, a constant hum that surrounded both of them. It hums to the beating of his heart, erratic and fast-paced, louder by the second. He’s not sure where he is, but he feels like he’s where he should be. Far away from the world he once knew. His surroundings grow darker. They’re still kissing. 


End file.
